A SIMPLE METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING AND DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE DIASTEREOISOMERS THAT RESULT FROM WRAPPING POLYDENTATE LIGANDS AROUND OCTAHEDRAL METAL-IONS

Polydentate ligands can be wrapped around octahedral centres in many d ifferent ways. This presents chemists with the challenge of being able to identify or distinguish between all the available isomers, in a st raightforward manner without necessarily having to draw them. Some of the existing nomenclature systems have been reviewed and elements of s ome of them extended and systematised so that they can readily be used as parts of a descriptive shorthand for the wrapping of a ligand arou nd a metal ion.